Pipe Master Parko top of world

OAHU: Joel Parkinson won his first world title and the Pipe Masters on one of the most phenomenal days in the history of professional surfing that included countryman Josh Kerr being rushed to hospital with a suspected broken neck.

Kerr was cleared of serious injury and returned to Banzai Pipeline to eliminate 11-time world champion Kelly Slater in the semi-finals to ensure Parkinson finally converted his extraordinary levels of natural talent into a world crown.

Parkinson completed a dream day by defeating Kerr in the final to also claim a maiden Pipe Masters trophy. ''I honestly cannot believe this has happened,'' Parkinson said. ''Hold me up. I'm tripping out, it's surreal, it's like time is going backwards. I've been on the tour for 12 years and the big dream has always been to get a world title. The other dream has been to win at Pipe. Both of those have just come true and I don't even know what to say.

''It's been a hard journey and a few times along the way I feel like I've been to hell and back with injuries and a few disappointments. None of that matters now. I've done it. Have I done it? I need someone to prove it to me because it doesn't feel real. I really have done it, right?''

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Kerr was hammered by a banzai bomb in his opening heat of the day before being whisked to hospital for X-rays. He was given the all-clear to return for the quarter-finals.

Parkinson and Slater both survived a series of nerve-racking heats before Kerr, who felt paralysed down the left side of his body before going to hospital, found the courage to risk further injury by dropping into more of Pipeline's monsters.

Parkinson's Pipe dream

Australian Joel Parkinson wins his first title of the year - at the same time as claiming his maiden world championship, as he takes out Hawaii's fabled Pipe Masters. Photo: Associated of Surfing Profession

''I just felt numb, it was frightening,'' Kerr said. ''I had pins and needles down my arm and then I couldn't feel anything. They took me for tests because they thought there might have been a fractured vertebra. That was a huge relief when they gave me the all-clear. We drove back as fast as we could, back out into the water. To beat Kelly was an amazing feeling and for an Australian to get the world championship, you couldn't ask for a better day.

''I couldn't be happier for Joel. I would have loved to win Pipe of course but everything Joel has done this year is just incredible. He's a freak and now he's world champion. Nobody deserves it more than him.''

Slater paid tribute.

''Joel has been so good for so long and, for all we know, this might open the floodgates for him,'' he said.

''He makes it look easy. I think we all know by now he has a pretty special sort of gift. His first world title might not be his last.''

The Pipe Masters was held in the memory of the late Andy Irons. The three-time world champion was a close friend of Parkinson's - and Irons's wife, Lyndie, was in tears when she presented him with the winners' wreath.

''I was struggling in the final but then these waves just came straight to me,'' an emotional Parkinson said.

''I don't know who gave me those waves. Or maybe I do. Nothing anyone ever does at Pipe will compare to what Andy did out here.''